Just in time to finish out 2005, it's time for the fourth installment in the "M&M" series! A few of the myths included are new within the last month, concerning 2006, so this is quite appropriate for New Year's Eve. Other myths go back through the rest of Bionicle story, most from 2005, and one from the very beginning of Bionicle itself. Read on for the facts!

As always, each myth will be stated in bold, followed by the truth of the matter. Vast majority of this is fully official and confirmed, and anything that is not is clearly labeled as such. Links to relevent topics follow where possible.

I'm keeping a list of all previous M&M articles at the end of the Official Storyline FAQ Topic's list, here.

Piraka.com is official storyline -- Nope. Pretty much everything on the Piraka site is the web producers having a bit of fun -- none of it was intended to be taken as serious parts of the Bionicle universe. The map of Voya Nui with the poem is one exception -- that is official storyline. The rest is a joke. Notice that virtually everything on the site, in the animations, etc. is very urban. Not only urban, but very un-Bionicle-like. Brick walls, graffiti, a couch, a telephone--this is all stuff you'd find on Earth. But it's been stated countless times that Bionicle is not intended to even come close to Earth's style; that's why things like wheels, guns... telephones etc. are avoided in the story. That's your big tipoff that the site's not intended to be taken seriously. Also, see here.

Makuta is in 2006 storyline/is leader of Piraka -- This rumor is also due to the Piraka.com site; the Makuta wanted poster has also been confused with official story... somehow. First things first... Greg said Makuta will not be in the 2006 storyline, and that he is not the leader of the Piraka. The Piraka work on their own; and the leader they rebelled against when they were Dark Hunters, The Shadowed One, is Makuta's enemy.

How this one made its way into misconception is harder to understand -- the wanted poster is written in such a way that it's clearly a joke, and doesn't even fit the official story we've seen before. He didn't dissapear from his residence, he was defeated by Takanuva, and is still under the rubble of the door, for example (it's not even confirmed whether he's alive or not). Perhaps people are simply eager to assume Makuta must be behind the 2006 story, as he has been behind all other years... but it's simply not the case. It's written as an Earth-style investigative report (which doesn't exist in Bionicle), and clearly the investigators are way off. Which is part of what makes it funny. For more reasons it's a joke from Greg, see here.

Bug sketches on Piraka.com are protodites -- It was a good theory for a while, at least as the web producers' take on protodites, but with the new animation for Thok on the site, we can clearly see that the bugs are meant to be actual bugs, way larger than microscopic. Since protodites are by definition microscopic protodermic organisms, the Piraka.com bugs can't be protodites. It appears they are nothing more than robotic bugs, just as unofficial as the rest of the site.

Piraka have guns -- Two of the Piraka weapons may resemble guns, but they're not. Guns have gunpowder and bullets, and neither has those. They are Bionicle weapons/tools just like previous ones, with powers. Hakann's is a lava launcher, and Thok's shoots an ice ray. So they are only "guns" in the sense that things come from them, sort of like a laser gun in science fiction. No bullets, no gunpowder, nothing like that. For more on Piraka powers and weapons, see here.

Roodaka is dead -- While we have never seen the words "she's alive" in any official story source, we do know she's alive. The two-page spread in comic #26 states that Roodaka secretly worked for both sides in the Dark Hunter/Brotherhood of Makuta War. This war only started after the events of B3, in Time Trap. Therefore, she must be alive. The exact details of how she survived aren't known, but if you watch B3 you can see Makuta's shadow hand appear, and envelop her. We know that there is a connection between the shard of the proto cage Roodaka had and the cage itself--that's how Roodaka freed Makuta. When all six elements hit her (and thus the shard she had with her), the elemental energy was channeled through that connection to the cage, breaking the Toa Seal.

So the current theory (and it is only a theory at this point) is that Makuta is capable of channeling his shadow hand through the same connection, and pulling Roodaka through without killing her. There is no evidence against the theory right now, and the movie does seem to depict it this way. Another possibility is simply that he combined his Rahkshi power of teleportation with the shadow hand power. Regardless, she did survive, and is in fact still alive a thousand years later in the time of the Toa Nuva.

Keetongu can heal the Rahaga -- While they would love it if that was true, he can't heal them at all. The Rahaga are actually not "sick" in any way, unlike the Toa Hordika, who were being mutated by venom. The Rahaga were mutated by Roodaka's Rhotuka spinner power, which is not venom-based. They essentially were turned into a different kind of being. Rahaga. Perfectly healthy Rahaga. To be turned back, Roodaka or someone else with similar mutation powers would have to do it. Keetongu's power and knowledge of healing is of no help to the Rahaga.

Roodaka could have freed Makuta in B3 herself -- Remember the scene where she scratches a shard out of the protodermis cage that Makuta is trapped in? Well, many people have concluded that if she would have kept scratching, she could have eventually freed Makuta. Well, she couldn't have. This was not depicted clearly in the movie, but if you read the movie novelization you learn that the act of removing just that one tiny shard caused her much pain. If she tried to remove more, it almost certainly would have killed her. In fact, Greg has said that if she or anyone else tries hard enough to free a proto cage's captive, waves of pain will be sent out so intense they'll actually kill the captive too. In short--proto cages are so powerful they counteract any attempt to free the captive by any means other than using the six elemental powers to break the Toa Seal (or Nuva cube in the Bahrag's case). For more, see here.

Toa of Stone do not actually have elemental powers -- Wrongo. All Toa have elemental powers. (At least, except when they've been stolen by Bohrok Kal.) It's part of the definition of Toa. And countless times, Stone Toa have been described as having the elemental power of stone (just like all other Toa). This myth probably came about because more often than not, you don't see Stone Toa using their element as dramatically as other Toa, and often without obvious involvement of their power. Pohatu kicking stone, for example, seems to only require strength, not elemental powers. But it is fact that he and all other Stone Toa have the power. And both of the two Stone Toa seen so far have had several examples of using their elemental power. It's just that more often than not, the element of stone is less convenient to manipulate with powers, like other elements. It's easier to throw a rock than to use elemental energy to create a rock out of thin air above your enemy, for example. Shooting a beam of rock is even less efficient. But if a Toa of Stone wanted to do things like that, they definately could.

Toa of Stone/Earth/[insert random element here] can only control their element, not make more of it -- This one is essentially the same misconception, coming about for the same reason. It's a bit more understandable, however, since the amount of times when you see a Toa of Stone creating stone is much rarer than when you see them reshaping it, manipulating it to fall apart as if carved, etc. However, in Web of the Visorak, Onewa (Metru) creates a stone claw, making it grow from a wall. This was once given by Greg as an example of a Stone Toa making more stone, proving it. Earth Toa can do the same thing. This is part of being a Toa -- it is not something that varies depending on your element.

Other powers, such as the more unusual power of Sonics, may seem foggier on this issue. Sound is not matter, so you can't make a physical beam of it. But it is energy, kinetic energy traveling through existing matter, such as air. Energy much like Takanuva's light power. So just like Takanuva, Krakua can "make" sound where no sound existed before without banging a drum or anything like that. He doesn't just control sound. Gravity is the same way, as are any other elements we'll learn of in the future.

Interestingly, every Toa known so far can also absorb their element (yes, including stone and earth). So there could be many unusual ways of using powers like sonics and light; take light away to make darkness or take sound away... perhaps to move quietly. So far, we've never seen any examples like those, so for now they should be treated as mere theories. For more on this myth, and the previous related one, see here.

Toa energy is the same as Elemental energy -- Actually, the difference between them is key, if you want an understanding of Toa power. They are two completely different types of energy. In many ways they're opposites.

Toa energy is non-rechargeable energy that is transferred to a Matoran via Toa stone or some other method (like, apparently, the Avhokii) to turn that Matoran into a Toa. It stays with the Toa always in the same amount, until/unless the Toa acheives his/her destiny and chooses to sacrifice that energy for some greater good, becoming a Turaga. Small amounts of it can be contributed to things like Toa stones without losing elemental powers. But once it's all gone, there's no recharging, and elemental powers are gone. It is neutral, as far as specific energy; the Toa energy in a fire Toa is the same kind of Toa energy in an Earth Toa.

Elemental energy is more common, and is rechargeable. It is specific to each element; Fire elemental energy is not Earth elemental energy. This is like fuel. Toa have a limited reserve of it, and expend it to use their power. When they're not using the power, it recharges. Where the recharging energy comes from is a mystery, but Greg has described it as a flow of energy to the Toa. In the Toa Nuva's case, that flow was cut off completely when their reserve of elemental energy was transferred to the Nuva symbols and then the symbols stolen by the Bohrok Kal. When a Matoran becomes a Toa, they usually become whichever element their Metru of origin is associated with, because a tiny amount of inaccessible elemental energy is present in them. But if enough elemental energy of another type is present (such as light in the Avhokii) it overrides their natural tendencies and makes them have that power instead. This is why Toa stones are neutral and can make Toa of any element; they contain only Toa energy, not elemental. Also, the more experienced you are as a Toa, the greater your reserve of elemental energy. The nature of elemental energy and the size of the reserve put limits on what a Toa can do; for example, Vakama once considered creating a "nova blast" by expending all of his current elemental energy in one blast, making a powerful shockwave of fire. Tahu Nuva would be able to create an even bigger nova blast than Vakama could have.

An easy way to remember it is that "elemental" energy is different for each element, while "Toa" energy is common to all Toa. Also, if you were a fan during the Toa Metru story in 2004, you saw the Toa use up their "elemental power" and be forced to wait for it to recharge, and sacrifice their "Toa power" to become Turaga forever.

The Toa Olda didn't really fall from the sky -- Old animations showed the Toa Olda's canisters falling from the sky when Takua summoned them. One part about that history has since been changed, but it is not that they came from the sky. The change was that they actually fell a thousand years earlier. The timeline as we know it goes like this, roughly. When the great Cataclysm hit the Bionicle world upon Mata Nui's falling asleep in B2: Legends of Metru Nui, the six canister fell from the sky and landed in the ocean. They were meant as a safeguard should Mata Nui fall asleep; they were supposed to land on the shores of Mata Nui, and make their way down to Metru Nui where they'd begin reversing what Makuta had just done. But something went wrong, and the canisters just floated in the ocean. They would have floated there forever if Takua had not found the Mata Nui Toa stones and inadvertently summoned them.

And with that, on to 2006! Thanks again to Greg Farshtey for countless facts used here, all the "story geeks" of Bionicle fandom, and BZP members who have made this article possible. Special thanks to Darnzerf and Swert for help with several parts of this.